Codex

Rock / Big Beat / Funk

Codex is named after Leonardo Da Vinci’s 15th century manuscript about future inventions. As their source of inspiration, the band fuses a variety of musical styles to call their own. This futuristic hybrid of rock, trip-hop, and live breaks has made Codex one of the most provocative acts coming from the Toronto, Canada music scene. 1996 is the debut year both for Codex and Canadian drum’n’bass as their 12" vinyl "The Codex Remixes" is the first rock+drum’n’bass recording released by a Canadian artist. Since then, Codex have been working non-stop in and out of their Toronto based recording studio.

By 1997, Codex was performing live shows at the Winter Music Conference in Miami Florida as well as in venues in New York City. Attention from record labels arrived with their sold out live performance at the NXNE festival in Toronto whereas LA-based World Domination Recordings seized the opportunity and signed the band right away. By the end of 1997, their first single ‘The Age Of Day’ hits the airwaves and their video gets constant rotation on MuchMusic and MTV.

In 1998 again a live performance: JVC Urban Rhythm Festival puts on its first show and requests Codex to be there, representing a new wave of live-electronic music in Canada. Their futuristic multimedia live show caught the attention of Eye magazine and by the end of the summer they were gazing at people from the magazine’s cover. By 1999, their popularity brings them to perform a live tour in the U.S., while the LA-based Cleopatra/Hypnotic record label, wants them on their compilation ‘Metro Breaks – Drum’N’Bass from Toronto’, for which they write ‘Cometose’. It is also in this year Sony Music chooses CODEX for the remix of Estheros’ single, ‘That Girl’.

Turn to 2001 and 2002 and Codex are busier than ever. Television station CityTV in Toronto, appreciates the new sounds of the band and gets them to write the theme songs for the OOhLaLa, N3TV, MMVA and Q-TV television shows. Also the American HBO television channel uses one of their compositions, ‘Consumption Queen’, as the theme song for the ‘Sexbytes’ television series. Finally in 2003, Codex begin working on their consecutive third and fourth release. First, ‘the Vinyl Remixes III’, is completed which showcases remixed upcoming songs by Codex and friends, and by the end of the year they complete their long awaited fourth CD. Summer of 2004 and Codex release the CD, ‘Chasing the Fiery Dragon’.

In 2006, Codex becomes a full fledged 4 piece band. This includes lead guitarist Daniel Mendelsohn from Ottawa, drummer Eric Bouchard from Quebec, and finally to come full circle is bassist extraordinaire from Hamilton, Luke Vajsar. The four including original singer/rhythm guitarist Luca Hiroyuki d’Addario along with studio member Scott Keenan, embark on a spiritual and musical journey. Over the course of 3 years the band has been carefully crafting a new wave of music and theatrical live shows not seen since the days of the avant-garde Salon de Refuses artists of 1800’s France. Infusing rock, jazz, hip-hop, drum’n’bass, dub, with ambient film scores, Codex are set to release their 5th and 6th recordings simultaneously under the title, ‘Ebb & Flow EP’ and ‘Fierce Little Creatures’. Currently their first single, ‘Say What You Want’, has been worked into a video which was officially released at the Hideout in Toronto, June 5th, 2009 in support of the Sea Shepherd conservation society.

Shot by Swedish filmmaker/photographer Ingrid Johansson, the video stars actress Melanie McLaren as a distraught woman dealing with her lover’s abandonment and subsequent betrayal. Shot in just 2 days, the video features cameos by local Toronto artists including uber producer Daniel Lanois.

And now in their final recording stages of their latest album, Codex will undoubtedly try to carve another etching into their musical landscape…stay tuned…